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In at least four recent instances, specific actions by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have moved President Barack Obama in a new, different direction. It's a trend worth noting, showing that Romney's positions have (at least some times) helped shaped Obama's.

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1.) On Monday September 10, one day prior to the start of the recent upheaval in the Middle East, President Obama did not receive the presidential daily briefing. Likewise, according to the president's schedule released by the White House, Obama did not receive that briefing on Tuesday September 11, Wednesday September 12, or Thursday September 13.

But then, on September 13, it was reported that Romney would begin to receive his own daily intelligence briefing. Since then (Friday September 14, Monday September 17, and Tuesday September 18), President Obama has received his presidential daily briefing.

(It was also reported that Obama had been skipping quite a number of these briefings. "The Government Accountability Institute examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time," reported Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post.)

2.) Likewise, after Mitt Romney called on China to devalue its currency last week, President Obama followed suit. "US President Barack Obama's ambassador to China renewed calls Thursday for Beijing to let its currency appreciate further after Republican challenger Mitt Romney pressed for a harder line," AFP reported. "Ambassador Gary Locke said that he would ‘not engage in political debates’ but said that the US position ‘is very clear and has been very consistent’ in urging China to reform its exchange rate system. ‘We know that the currency is still undervalued,’ Locke said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington."

3.) After Romney knocked the U.S. embassy in Cairo for apologizing for offensive speech, Obama did the same. "Two senior Romney advisers told National Journal that the campaign doesn’t care that the statement it criticized was issued long before U.S. grounds were breached," reported National Journal. "The larger point, the advisers said, was that neither the Obama State Department nor the White House withdrew it or repudiated it while the crisis was unfolding in Cairo or in the streets outside the consulate in Benghazi. The White House began distancing itself from the original Cairo embassy statement after Romney leveled his criticism shortly after 10 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday."

4.) And when Romney visited parts of Louisiana that had been hit by Hurricane Isaac last month, President Obama did the same a few days later. "With all sides vowing politicking isn't in order, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got a close-up view Friday of the devastation caused this week by Hurricane Isaac -- days ahead of a visit by his November foe, President Barack Obama," said CNN.